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Trump and CNN Go Head to Head

Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy, he has made his feelings towards to media no secret. In fact, this relationship has played a crucial part in his campaign. While many voters have grown increasingly suspicious of the media and their bias’, Trump called out their suspicion as a fact. The media very much tried to take down Trump when he first started his campaign, but the tactic backfired. As they covered the candidate’s campaign more and more, his poll numbers went up and up. And as they covered him, the networks ratings increased, giving them more incentive to have Trump on their screens. While candidates struggle to get this airtime, Trump’s every move was documented and criticized.

This could have hurt any other candidate, but in the current election cycle, it has helped Trump immensely. There has been this conspiracy theory growing that the media, the fat cats, and the politicians are all intertwined in a corrupt web. So, the more they hated on Trump, the more voters knew that Trump was not part of this corruption and this secret club. Moreover, Trump made a point to call out and attack the media. Again, this would normally be a kiss of death for a politician, but it propelled Trump forward. He called out Megyn Kelly and skipped a Fox News debate. And today, he has called out CNN calling it the “Clinton’s News Network.”

During Trump’s rally, he often takes time to point at the media and allow his supporters to boo and hiss at them. He call them out for being biased and unfair to his run for the presidency. And really, in many cases, the media has been unfair to him. The media’s opinion normally is enough to make an election (think Fox News), but in this case, Trump’s supporters have stopped listening to the media and instead listen directly to their candidate.

Last week, CNN started to fight back. On air, they had a quote from Trump where he denied every saying the Japan should have its own arsenal of nuclear weapon for its own self defense. While the clip was playing, CNN inserted parentheses where they said he did. With a picture of Trump speaking in the background, the text on the screen read:

“TRUMP: I NEVER SAID JAPAN SHOULD HAVE NUKES (HE DID)”

Those who are against Trump were obviously a fan of this, tweeting that all networks should do this when they broadcast Trump rallies. Others see this as blatant favoritism for Clinton instead of Trump. And for those people, Trump agrees with them.

Reince Priebus went against CNN in August 2013 and threatened to not let the network cover the GOP debates. Priebus opposed CNN’s documentary about Hillary Clinton. Again, because of political favoritism.

At this point, the media has changed so much that when we think of a network, we can almost immediately think of what party is associated with it. There is always a way to present facts in a way that either hurt or advance a political agenda. For this reason, CNN and Fox News and other major networks are clearly associated with a candidate of their choice. It is up to the viewer to be aware of this, and the bias that comes with it. As we read “political facts,” we need to know it comes with a twist so that we can remain open to other “political facts,” and have a dialogue about from our different perspectives.